When it comes to business partnerships monogamy is not always the way to go. The chances of finding one business partner who will be able to meet all your needs moving forward are very slim and can harm your business in the long run.

Don’t get me wrong here, there are partners who are perfect for you and that you may well want to form long-term, or even lifelong, connections with but odds are they just won’t be able to meet all your needs, especially as the business grows.

You need to cast the net a bit wider to increase the number of relationships your business has. Now one thing to keep in mind as you do this is that each new member of the group needs to get on with the existing members, grow your partnership group with businesses who compliment each other as you don’t want your partners to feel threatened by each other, you want everyone to feel they are valued by you for the services they provide. You also want your partners to be able to collaborate with each other for your benefit.

The key elements when it comes to successful polygamous business partnerships are:

Try and get all parties involved to get along and see the value of the others involved

Give each partner the attention they deserve

Make sure everyone knows about everyone else

If one partner needs to work with another make sure they are clear on who does what, when

If you want to explore how polygamous partnerships can work for your business book in a meeting with The Consultants’ Community and see how a group of over 20 consultants can help you take your business to the next level.

https://theconsultantscommunity.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Why-polygamous-partnerships-are-the-future-of-small-business.png10801080Andy Sephton, The Consultants' Communityhttps://theconsultantscommunity.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TCC-Logo-Main-Sqaure-300x300.pngAndy Sephton, The Consultants' Community2018-09-25 10:30:452018-09-25 17:03:48Why polygamous partnerships are the future of small business

The official definition of opportunity cost is “the loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen” but what does that really mean for businesses?

If you run your own business there are many moving parts that you need to manage. If you are focussing on getting one part to move properly then you may well miss that fact that the whole machine is breaking further down the line. Every time you decide to focus on one part you are taking away the opportunity to focus on another part.

So if you decide you will focus 100% on sales for the next quarter then the opportunity cost is that you have no time to focus on HR, management, legal, etc. Equally if you decide to focus on all of these areas instead you are costing yourself the opportunity to focus on the area you feel is a priority.

Whatever you do, there is an opportunity cost. You can’t do everything and you can’t cover all the bases on your own, especially as your business grows. The key to dealing with this is simple, ask for help! If you can’t do everything yourself, find people who can fill the gaps. Not ready to hire staff? No worries, there is a plethora of consultants and service providers out there who have built businesses with the sole purpose of helping out people in your situation.

So as a final thought I just want to ask you what you think the opportunity cost of not asking for help is?

If you want to have a no obligation, free consultation with The Consultants’ Community to find out how our members can help you reduce your opportunity cost click here to book

What if I told you that there was a simple question that could change the way you run your business? If there was
something you could ask yourself every time you did a task at work that had the potential to make you more successful, would you be interested in knowing what that was? Most importantly, will you be honest with yourself when you answer it.

The question is: “Can you do a better job?”

Whatever the task you have just completed, take a step back and ask yourself if you could have done a better job.

If the answer is yes and you know you could have done a better job you need to look at what the reasons are as to why you didn’t. Is it a lack of time? A lack of motivation? A lack of passion about the outcome? Is it an issue you can fix so next time you can do a better job or is it simply a case of you could have done it better but you just didn’t want to?

If the answer is no and you believe you have done your best and could not have done more, but you are still unhappy with the result, it is time to admit you need help. If you can’t do it better and your best is not good enough, go and find someone who can either teach you to do it better or who can do it for you. We cannot all be the best at everything and it is impossible for one person to know everything which means it is ok to ask for help.

If you can be honest with yourself about whether you can do a better job, then the possibilities are endless.

Want to talk to The Consultants’ Community about those possibilities? Contact us today to set up a meeting.

https://theconsultantscommunity.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Untitled-design-11.png600600Andy Sephton, The Consultants' Communityhttps://theconsultantscommunity.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/TCC-Logo-Main-Sqaure-300x300.pngAndy Sephton, The Consultants' Community2018-08-27 12:39:102018-08-27 12:39:46This one question could change the way you run your business

I have presented on this topic at conferences and I have blogged about this area before. You may be fed up with reading about it but it is a core value for me as the Managing Director of The Consultants’ Community. For a bit of a change, I won’t ask you to read about it today, instead you can watch a video I recorded at a recent meeting of the ACL Business Network and hear me talk about it instead:

Want to hear more about how The Consultants’ Community can help your business? Contact us today to set up a meeting.

Like many aspects of our lives, we can either leave things to chance and hope that they magically fall
into place; or we can make a plan in order to identify, prioritise and execute the various activities
required to achieve an outcome. There is also the concept of too much planning, which can cause
“paralysis by analysis”. So creating a business plan is not about any plan, but the right plan.

Bstar released a SME Research Report for 2017/18 in April 2018. The report, based on a survey of small
businesses, identified business planning as the number one Business Concern, unchanged from the
previous year. Encouragingly, 98% of business owners believe that there are opportunities to grow their
business, and most have ideas to do so. What they lack is a plan – only 20% had prepared a business
plan. Whilst this is sobering, the good news is that it is never too late to create a business plan. And it
has been proven in numerous studies that companies with a well-conceived plan achieve on average
three times the profitability of their industry peers.

One of the key outcomes from the right plan is prioritisation. This involves making the choices necessary
to create a world-class business. Having too many options creates confusion and stress for the owner.
Confidence is required to make the effort to change. As the Bstar report notes, business owners need to
believe in their goals and trust in the plan to achieve them.

Finally, accountability is key to successful implementation of the business plan. Every person in the
organisation needs an accountability partner, most importantly the owner. Do you have one?

Want to hear more about how PAIR Planning and other members of The Consultants’ Community can help your business? Contact us today to set up a meeting.